Google and Microsoft killing the planet?

Analysis completed by environmentalist, Michael Thomas, has revealed that Microsoft and Google consumed 24 TWh of electricity last year, which is more than 100 different countries consumed, including Ghana, Tunisia, Iceland, and Azerbaijan.

To put this into perspective, both tech giants consumed more energy than Iceland, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and Tunisia, which only consumed 19 TWh each, in 2023, and consumed the same as Azerbaijan, which has a population of 10.14M.

This highlights the massive amount of energy that’s needed to power AI, with Google itself admitting that it’s seen a 47% rise in its production of greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the energy demands of the data centers that power its AI models and systems. This is backed up by research which shows that one query, using an AI chatbot (like ChatGPT and Gemini), requires 10X more energy than a traditional Google Search Engine query.  

Although Google and Microsoft have both pledged to become carbon-neutral or carbon-free by the end of 2030, more effort to use sustainable or renewable energy needs to come from these tech giants, who each have a market valuation of $2.294 trillion and $3.372 trillion, respectively, making them the 2nd and 4th most valuable companies in the world: I think they can afford it.